quote:

---

Shortly after he was attracted to Toril, Annam married a lesser demigoddess who manifested herself as a vast mountain located on the edge of the region now known as The Cold Lands. Known variously as Sonnhild (in ancient Thorass), Deronain (in Auld Dwarvish), and Othea (in the common tongue of the giants), the demigoddess soon bore Annam several sons.

---

quote:

---

Despite Othea’s best efforts, Annam eventually discovered her dalliance and sought revenge upon Ulutiu. Although accounts of the All-Father’s retribution vary, most giants accept the version of events popularized by the vast friezes at Hotun-Shûl, an enormous under- ground temple located somewhere beneath the Ice Spires. Fabled for their artistry and expanse (no human artist could possibly hew such colossal masterpieces from the living rock of the caverns), the friezes were sculpted by Illsenstaad, second son of Obadai and one of the earliest stone giants. Although the friezes themselves haven’t been glimpsed since Hotun-Shûl was razed by mysterious subterranean marauders more than 400 years ago, sketches and interpretations crafted by artisans who once visited the temple are available in the Realms’ larger libraries.
A Fragment From “The Meanderings Upon the Friezes of Hotun-Shûl” by Skrom Jek, Master Builder of Thay, as translated and annotated by Learned Rundigast, Sage of Waterdeep:
Ulutiu’s final breath is depicted as a violent tempest that shatters the ziggurat at Sheol-Div (panel #77).
His corpse is said to land on an icy death-barge located in the Cold Ocean (panel #81).
Once the barge sinks beneath the ocean, Ulutiu’s enchanted amulet begins to freeze the surrounding waters, creating the Great Glacier and Endless Ice Sea (panel #83).

---

quote:

---

In total, it took approximately 75 years for Ulutiu's amulet to reach the limit of its powers and freeze over the several hundred miles of sea that composed the Ice Sea at its height. As the frozen wastes expanded during this era, countless dwellings, villages, and strongholds were destroyed all across the region now known as the Cold Lands. In its last few years of expansion, the glacier even threatened to engulf Lanaxis' citadel at Voninheim, the remains of
Ostoria's capital.
Although Annam's sons quickly uncovered the secret of the creeping ice and learned how they might halt its progress, Othea forbade her children to set foot upon the glacier. To her, the ice was Ulutiu's just revenge upon a coldblooded murderer. Though the ice doomed Ostoria, Othea loved Ulutiu's children better than Annam's. All the ice really threatened was Annam's dream of a Toril ruled entirely by
giantkind.

---

quote:

---

But Lanaxis, de facto leader of the giants, was so devoted to his father and Ostoria that he refused to accept his mother's will. As the glacier drew uncomfortably close to Voninheim, he summoned all of Annam's sons to his citadel and urged them to help mount an expedition after Ulutiu's amulet in defiance of Othea. When Dunmore, progenitor of the wood giants and Othea's final son (born of Ulutiu, not Annam, though Annam believed he fathered the wood giant), refused to disobey the demigoddess and threw the meeting into chaos, Lanaxis was forced to modify his plan.
This time, he resolved to poison Othea, removing the only obstacle to Ostoria's salvation. Unfortunately, his plans went awry. Lanaxis
poisoned not only Othea, but all his brothers (save Dunmore and Arno/Julian) as well. Just after she drank his poison, Othea cursed
Lanaxis and the ettin, saying that should Lanaxis leave her shadow, he would lose his immortality. Seeing this measure as the probable
end of Ostoria, Lanaxis' progeny, the titans, fled Toril altogether for the plane of Arborea.
Exactly what happened to Lanaxis himself remains something of a mystery. As for Othea, the moment Lanaxis' poison touched her lips, the mountain that served as her manifestation on Toril grew cragged, brittle, and moss-covered. For the next several weeks, Annam's final son remained trapped in the womb caves located far beneath the mountain's surface.

---

quote:

---

I pour mead to the All-Father for
Hrjurnur, son of Hjurgen,
leveler of Ranauroch,
son of Ottar,
Jarl of the northern wind-teeth,
son of grand Annam,
All Seeing, All Knowing, All Quelling,
All Father
Fireheart,
Mighty reaver of the wyrm's core,
He who howled at the sun,
He of the quenched heart,
He who drowned in the river of swords

---

quote:

---

..which father would let his own children be devoured by a dragon because he lost a contest of riddles..

---

quote:

---

..does Hotun mean Saga or Tale..

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gary Dallison

A few more items of interest

quote:

---

Shortly after he was attracted to Toril, Annam married a lesser demigoddess who manifested herself as a vast mountain located on the edge of the region now known as The Cold Lands. Known variously as Sonnhild (in ancient Thorass), Deronain (in Auld Dwarvish), and Othea (in the common tongue of the giants), the demigoddess soon bore Annam several sons.

---

Obviously ignoring the stuff about marriage. Does marriage even exist for giants, and how or why would one marry a mountain.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gary Dallison

A few more items of interest

quote:

---

Shortly after he was attracted to Toril, Annam married a lesser demigoddess who manifested herself as a vast mountain located on the edge of the region now known as The Cold Lands. Known variously as Sonnhild (in ancient Thorass), Deronain (in Auld Dwarvish), and Othea (in the common tongue of the giants), the demigoddess soon bore Annam several sons.

---

Obviously ignoring the stuff about marriage. Does marriage even exist for giants, and how or why would one marry a mountain.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by TheIriaeban

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gary Dallison

A few more items of interest

quote:

---

Shortly after he was attracted to Toril, Annam married a lesser demigoddess who manifested herself as a vast mountain located on the edge of the region now known as The Cold Lands. Known variously as Sonnhild (in ancient Thorass), Deronain (in Auld Dwarvish), and Othea (in the common tongue of the giants), the demigoddess soon bore Annam several sons.

---

Obviously ignoring the stuff about marriage. Does marriage even exist for giants, and how or why would one marry a mountain.

---

Why, indeed?

I like big buttes and I can not lie
You other brothers can't deny
That when a hill walks in with an itty bitty grade
And a round thing in your face
You get sprung!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Returnip

The marrying of the mountain could be inspired by the old norse creation myth too. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the shenanigans within it, but I'll give you an example from the prose edda. See if this makes more sense than shagging a pile of gravel:

The first world to exist was Muspell, a place of light and heat whose flames are so hot that those who are not native to that land cannot endure it.
Surt sits at Muspell's border, guarding the land with a flaming sword. At the end of the world he will vanquish all the gods and burn the whole world with fire.

Beyond Muspell lay the great and yawning void named Ginnungagap, and beyond Ginnungagap lay the dark, cold realm of Niflheim.
Ice, frost, wind, rain and heavy cold emanated from Niflheim, meeting in Ginnungagap the soft air, heat, light, and soft air from Muspell.

Where heat and cold met appeared thawing drops, and this running fluid grew into a giant frost ogre named Ymir.

Ymir slept, falling into a sweat. Under his left arm there grew a man and a woman. And one of his legs begot a son with the other. This was the beginning of the frost ogres.

Thawing frost then became a cow called Audhumla. Four rivers of milk ran from her teats, and she fed Ymir.

The cow licked salty ice blocks. After one day of licking, she freed a man's hair from the ice. After two days, his head appeared. On the third day the whole man was there. His name was Buri, and he was tall, strong, and handsome.
Buri begot a son named Bor, and Bor married Bestla, the daughter of a giant.

Aaaaaand so on and so forth. So many questions. Why did Ymir have to make kids with his legs when he had just spawned a man and a woman? Who did Buri have kids with? Did he hump one of Ymir's legs?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by sleyvas
Oh, I can tell.... I'm gonna like you.

---

quote:

---

I love those old norse myths and try to intermix them where I can with a twist into realms lore. For instance, in Rashemen there's a goddess that every piece of lore says corresponds to Chauntea (that being Bhalla). My take is that Bhalla is an entirely separate entity and its Faerunian "sages" saying she's Chauntea. The entity that she is has has her name "shortened" to Bhalla... her full name is Audum-Bhalla....Audumbla... the great cow that nursed ymir.

I've been writing up an entirely new "metahel" pantheon for the metahel humans in Anchorome that's driven by the idea that Odin, Frigga, died and Thor is now head of the pantheon... but there's all kinds of slight changes to the pantheon (sleipnir is an eight legged caribou instead of a horse and his name is besparr, the "vanir" are the "faernir", Sif is called Sifya and takes more of a spotlight as essentially now being the "Queen Mother" role, etc...).

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gary Dallison

I try and draw inspiration from wherever I can but taking then even slightly literally is not my thing.

---

quote:

---

I can't imagine a conversation occuring between Annam and Othea, because one of these individuals is a mountain (no mouth).

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gary Dallison

Well for me, othea is listed as a demigod, that means not a true god, so she has only one body, and that is material plane bound. Demigod can of course move their body using legs normally, but Othea as a mountain makes that difficult.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gary Dallison

Randomly came across the parts about Annam and his titans warring with the batrachi and causing the tearfall.

This of course predates the creation of the giants and many would consider that it conflicts with current histories but i've had another heretical thought.

What if Annam was not a giant at all. He created his sons around -30000 DR, but that does not mean he did not exist before that time.

There are hints that the sarrukh fought against gigantic statues that are now known today as the Statues That Walk.

What if Annam was one of these enormous statues, created by Spellweavers and fighting against the encroaching empires of the sarrukh and then the batrachi. Annam could have been one of these huge statues, so could Omu, and an army of other similar beings, the biggest and most powerful golem like creations ever.

Tearfall destroys most of these huge golems, but it also frees Annam and some others (Moradin perhaps) from their bondage, making them self aware. Unable to have children himself, Annam uses whatever Othea is to create children in his image.




I realise its highly heretical but it would explain why Annam created his children and then abandoned them (a bit like data from star trek, he wants to have children but cannot "feel" enough to care about them). It also allows 4e prehistory to work with actual realms history.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gary Dallison

Cant be a god in the realms if you have no worshippers.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gary Dallison

I'm going down the route of stronmaus and the other giant gods just being the true names of what we know as annams children. So Ottar's truename was skoreaus, and so on. Makes it easier to conceive and there is less god stuff. When you ascend to godhood your truename has to be shared anyway, otherwise how can your worshippers offer prayers to you and get magic power from you and try to communicate with you.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gary Dallison

And how can you be a god of giants if there are no giants yet. So annam has his kids with Othea and when they die they become the gods of the giants and the histories lose the fact that otter and skoreaus are the same person (it's not that difficult of a stretch, nobody knows Bhaal was really the arcanist Tharlagaunt Bale, no one even knows what Banes mortal name was, and they only ascended one millennia ago).

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gary Dallison

It doesnt conflict any of the myths because there is no mention of the gods in any of the old giant history, only annam and his children (and a separate myth that says he must have fathered these other children on a different goddess on another plane or world, a myth likely made up later to explain why there are two lots of names).

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Gary Dallison

Let's face it, who thought it was a great idea that annam had one lot of kids on toril and then a whole lot of other kids in another plane that became the gods of the giants. Just another horrible piece of giantcraft lore that we can mess with thanks to unreliable narrator.

---